POSSIBLE MIGRATION ROUTE OF THE GRAY WHALE

ON THE COAST OF JAPAN

HIDEO OMURA Whales Research Institute, Tokyo.

ABSTRACT

The gray whale occured on the south coast of Wakayama and Kochi prior to the turn of the century. The calving ground of this stock was pos­sibly in the Seto Inland Sea. It migrated to and from the feeding ground in the Okhotsk Sea, along the east coast of Japan. With the increasing industrial development and boat and ship traffic this stock of the gray whale was driven from the Inland Sea and probably joined to the Korean stock or even to the California stock. A case of stranding of the blue whale is also reported.

INTRODUCTION

Occurrence of the gray whale on the coast of Japan is described by many authors of old Japanese books and picture scrolls of whales. In Geishi (The treatise of the whale), written by Jiemon Kandoriya of the castellany of Wakayama in 1758 and printed in 1760, which is the earliest printed monograph of the cetacea in Japan, is shown a drawing of Kokujira with a brief description (Fig. 1 ). This whale is drawn rather slender, but it has a series of knobs instead of a dorsal fin and bears many circular and semicircular scars on the surface of the body and tail flukes. It has bristles spreading over the entire head. He also describes that this species is the smallest among whales. He has a reason because the minke whale was not taken in these days (see Table 1 ).

Kiyonori Otsuki (1773-1850), a famous scholar in the Tokugawa era, left an undated manuscript on whales and whaling, entitled Geishiko (A draft of a history of the whale). It remained unpublished till 1925, when it was printed in a series of various collections in Sendai. It is by far the most systematic survey of whales and whaling that was written in the Tokugawa period (Hawley, 1958). In this book he notes that Kokujira has baleen plates of white in color. Other descrip­tions agree in general with those in Geishi, but he mentions the body form of Kokujira is more fat than the drawing in Geishi and gives two figures of Kokujira which resemble more to the gray whale (Fig. 2).

From the above it may safely be concluded that Kokujira is identical with the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) and it had occurred in the past at least on the coast of Wakayama. Further there remains some statistical data which show Kokujira or the gray whales were taken on the coast of Kochi, southern part of Shikoku, by the so-called net whaling prior to this century.

Modern whaling was introduced to Japan in 1897. Operation of this type

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., No. 26, 1974, 1-14

01¥世URA

o[ whaling was firstly conducted on the east coast of Korea under the permission

of the said government. After several years it was introduced to the coast of

Kyushu, Kochi and Wakayama, gradually replacing the net whaling, and then

to the northeast coast of Japan and off Hokkaido. But there is no record of the

gray whale taken by modern whaling on the coast of Kochi and Wakayama, except

one reported by Andrews (1914), refered from records of whaling company. This

whale, a male of 40 feet long, was taken at Oshima, Wakayama, on 9 February 1910.

2

Cited rrom Hawley, 19'i日

一－R．7

2’zt一対

Kokujira in Gcishi, 1760. Fig. I.

Kokujira in Gcishiko (Share).

In April o[ the year he stayed at Oshima, but no gray whale was observed at this

landstation by him (Andrews, 1916). On the other coast of Japan the gray whale

was taken rarely, as reported by Mizue (1951). What happened with the gray

wl叫 eon the coast of Japan? This problem is discussed in this paper in relation

to the supposed calving ground of this spccies.

Fig. 2.

Sci. Rψ. J’Vhales Res. Inst.,

No. :!G, 1974

GRAY WHALE 3

CATCH OF THE GRAY WHALE IN THE DAYS OF NET WHALING

The method of taking whales by net was invented by Kakuemon Taiji in 1677 at Taiji of the castellany of Wakayama (now Wakayama-ken), and then it spread to fishing villages on the south and west coast of Ja pan, including Shikoku and Kyushu, where whales came in shore in winter.

This method is a combined method of driving, netting and harpooning. When a whale was sighted by Yamami (watch on the hill), they make a signal informing species, position and swimming direction of the whale with flags or rockets. Various kinds of boats waited and went into action in orderly fashion as soon as the commander gave the order. The basic organization of whaling fleet was as follow.

Sekobune (for driving and killing whales). One group of about ten boats or more, 13 m long and 2.2 m wide with 8 oars, occasionally with sail. Crew consists of 15 men.

Amibune (netting boats). One group of about 6 boats, 13 m long and 3.5 m wide with 8 oars. Crew of 10 men.

Mossobune (tug boats). A group of 4 boats, nearly same as Sekobune but with a little broader beam. Crew of 13 men. Sekobunes drive the whale to the place called Amiba (netting place) near

the shore, producing underwater sounds with wooden hammer, where Amibunes are waiting to set the nets. Net is set sometimes two or three-fold in order to prevent the whale's escape and to check its action by entanglement.

Various kinds of harpoons, made of iron, were used. Their weights are not heavy and usually 1.0-2.0 kg in weight. Attached with harpoon a slender wooden pole and a rope with float at its end. Harpoons are thrown high up in the air so that they drop on the back of the whale from the air. When the whale has been sufficiently weakened by a number of harpoons, and later by the help of heavy swords thrown to the thorax, a sailor swims and climbs up on it and makes a hole at the blowholes with his knife in order to pass a rope through it. Then the whale is wound by several strands of rope around the body in order to tie the whale body between two Mossobunes before the whale was finally killed. Then it is stab­bed at the heart with long swords.

In this way not only the right whale but also the balaenopterid whales were taken by the net whaling. This type of whaling was conducted by villagers forming groups. In these days two groups were in operation on the coast of Kochi and four groups in Wakayama. Shibusawa (1930) gives catch statistics of Ukitsu­gumi, one of these groups in Kochi, during 22 years from 1875 to 1896, by species of whales (Table 1 ). As seen in this table 64 whales or 17 percent among the total of 370 whales taken during this period were gray whales. From this table it is clear that the gray whale was hunted regularly at least until 1896 in these regions, as stated briefly by Nishiwaki and Kasuya (1970).

Further Hattori (1888) presents some data on details of operation and sighting of whales by the same whaling group in three years of 1880, 1882, and 1883 (Table

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., No. 26, 1974

4 OMURA

2). A total of 43 gray whales were sighted in these years, in which 12 were taken, 24 escaped from taking and 7 were not pursued due to unfavorable weather.

In general the rate of the catch against total whales sighted is very low and this is thought to be the main reason why the net whaling could survive more than 200 years. Among whale species other than the gray in Table 1 were also taken later by the modern whaling on the coast of Kochi and Wakayama.

TABLE I. CATCH OF WHALES BY UKITSU WHALING GROUP, 1875-1896. (Cited from Shibusawa, 1939)

Year Blue Fin Bryde's Humpback Right Gray Total

1875 3 4 2 I I II 1876 2 2 5 6 2 17 1877 3 19 11 33 1878 3 4 4 6 I 18 1879 2 9 3 7 22

1880 5 8 2 6 23 1881 5 10 2 5 23 1882 3 2 4 3 12 1883 3 7 3 14 1884 5 2 2 12

1885 4 4 5 2 3 19 1886 9 3 6 I 20 1887 5 4 13 4 26 1888 3 4 6 I 15 1889 2 7 4 2 15

1890 3 4 8 1891 5 9 15 1892 2 3 8 1893 4 3 4 13 1894 4 3 I 10

1895 2 5 6 3 17 1896 5 2 4 6 2 19

Total 55 23 81 126 21 64 370

Note: Japanese name of the above whale species in these days are: Blue whale-Nagasukujira, Fin-Nosokujira, Bryde's-Iwashi or Katsuokujira, Humpback-Zatokujira, Right-Semikujira, Gray-Kokujira.

But now the blue whale is called Shironagasukujira, and the fin Nagasukujira. Iwashikujira means usually the sei whale, but Iwashikujira in these districts is possibly the Bryde's whale.

SUPPOSED CALVING GROUND IN THE SETO INLAND SEA

Shindo (1970) proposes the "east Kyushu migration route" of whales. He is a clinical doctor, but concurrently a historian and has much interest on whales and whaling, especially on whales in the Seto Inland Sea. His conclusion is based upon his study of tombs and memorials of whales and old documents concerning these whales. He also visited villages and made interviews with people con­cerned.

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., No. 26, 1974

GRAY WHALE 5

In old days it was a general custom to errect a tomb or a memorial when a whale stranded on the beach or occasionally killed by fishermen, like human being following after buddhism. These tombs or memorials are most abundantly re­maining on the northeast coast of Kyushu and west coast of Shikoku (Fig. 10). Among 34 tombs or memorials, he investigated all over Japan, 15 are situated in these districts. They were errected within a period of about 100 years from 1809 to 1907. It is suggested from these facts that whales have passed frequently this strait and some of them were killed occasionally or stranded.

TABLE 2. SIGHTING AND WHALING OPERATION BY UKITSU WHALING GROUP, 1880, 1882, AND 1883.

(Cited from Hattori, 1888)

Year Blue Fin Bryde's Humpback Right Gray Total

1880: Catch 5 7* 2 1 6 22* Escaped, A 2 5 4 12

B 9 3 15 4 2 8 41 c

Not operated, D 5 6 4 4 4 3 26 E 14 3 5 22

Total, sighted 34 12 34 15 7 21 123

1882: Catch 3 2 4 3 12 Escaped, A 3 6 2 4 15

B 4 2 11 4 23

" c 1 1 Not operated, D 3 4 3 4 16

E 2 1 6 9 Total, sighted 15 3 24 16 9 9 76

1883: Catch 3 7 3 14 Escaped, A 6 5 2 14

B 9 22 16 5 52

c 5 5 Not operated, D 3 2 26 3 34

E 5 6 46 58 Total, sighted 18 44 100 13 177

* One whale difference from Table 1. Escaped, A-breaking net, B-beneath net, C-round net. Not operated, D-due to rough weather, E-offshore.

He (1968) also ascertained that Beppu-wan, a small bay on the northeast coast of Kyushu, was a calving ground of whales. Fishermen applied in vain several times for permission of whaling to the local government. These documents are remaining, but the reason of the rejection has not been made clear. Coming of whales to this bay has lasted until about 1887. With regard to the whale species he notes as Nagasukujira, mainly based on old papers left in Usuki, a city facing to a small bay next to Beppu-wan, and where a memorial of a stranded whale remammg. The story of this stranding is described later in this report.

Waters around Iwaijima, Yamaguchi-ken, was also a calving ground of whales.

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., No. 26, 1974

6 OMUR八

This is supported by Higashi (1944), who writes“Nearby waters of Iwaijima was

a calvi時 groundof Nagasukujira and 60-70 wl叫 eshave gathered yearly in these

waters. Sometimes dead calves were washed ashore". In Onoda, a city located

westward of Iwaijima in Yamaguchi-ken, whaling was conducted in small scale

in winter with hand harpoons and without using net. The whaling group was

consisted of 15-20 fishing vessels. The whale species is not known, but most of

them were accompanied by calves. The whaling group was dissolved in some

years around 1877.

~ fか

司

IP ti

‘’－ 'I:'

児

炉、

Fi耳.3. Kokujira in 'I akuyoki, Kawanoe. I仇stwhale.

J2.

史卸船主

Fig. +. Kokujira in Yakuyoki、1くawanoc. Second whale (Aosagi).

Above are the basis why Shindo (1970) proposes the “east Kyushu migration

route" of whales. He concludes that there are good evidences of whales coming

into Beppu-wan and came in shor巴 ofthe south coast of Yamaguchi-I王enand the

purpose of this migration was for calving. For the whale species he notes the pos-

Sci. Re.戸.Whales Res. Inst.,

λ・o. 26, 1974

GRAY WHALE 7

sibility of the balaenopterid whales, but this is hardly be thought. No baleen whales other than the gray whale give birth to a calf in such shallow coastal waters. It is highly possible, therefore, that the Shindo's proposal of migration route is only applied for the gray whale. There is a possibility of other species entering into the Seto Inland Sea through this passage, but it is not for calving. In fact a skull of a balaenopterid whale was dug out from sea bottom off Onoda in 1926. This skull was identified as a minke whale by Dr. T. Ogawa (Shindo, 1968).

Shindo (1968) reports two gray whales were taken at Kawanoe, Ehime-ken, in 1864. The official records or diary of the local government (Yakuyoki) in these days are still being kept at the city library. The first whale was taken on 20 February 1864 by nets and harpoons. This whale came in shore of the city several days before the hunting was done, during which period villagers prepared catching equipment. Shortly after the catch of the first whale the second whale came and this whale was taken on 26 February of the same year.

Attached with the official records there remains sketches of two whales (Figs. 3 and 4). Both are without doubt the gray whale, having several knobs instead of a dorsal fin and the head is small and not arched, unlikely to the right whale. The first whale was marked with white color on the dark gray of the body the infection of barnacles, but lacking the pale patches. The second whale bears pale patches all over the body, in addition to the barnacles. The body length of the first and the second whales were recorded as having 4 Biro (1 Biro approximately 1 Fathom) and 6 Biro respectively. This length does not mean the total length, because it was a custom in Wakayama and Kochi to measure the length of the whale body from the blowholes to the insertion of the tail flukes. In any case the first whale was smaller and younger than the second whale. The first whale is noted as Kokujira, but the second whale as Kokujira or Aosagi. Two types of Kokujira were noted in these days. One is Aosagi and another is Share, but the difference between two types is not clearly described in most of the old books. Should the first whale grouped as Share, then the difference is based on the color pattern of the whale body caused by the infection of barnacles, or it can be said that Share is younger than Aosagi. Both whales are thought to be females, because teats are noted in addition to navel, genital grooves, anus and blow holes in their right positions.

One scapula from one of these whales has been preserved. It has been kept at Bachiman shrine in the city (Fig. 5). There is a custom in Japan to donate Ema to a shrine in memory of big event or from some other reasons. Usually Ema is a painting on a wooden plate. In this case a scapula was used instead of wooden plate. At the center of the scapula a big Japanese (or Chinese) character which means a whale is written with powdered gold. On both sides and below this character a brief descriptions of this whale is also written with paint by small characters. This Ema has been hanged more than a hundred years on the wall of the shrine with other wooden Emas.

These two whales were the only whales taken at Kawanoe in the history, but at Takuma, a small town east of Kawanoe, whaling had been conducted with nets

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., No. 26, 1971

8 OMURA

and harpoons annually, taking about three whales in average, at least in a period

from 1889 to 1897. The species of whale are not known, but the size of whales

is said to be 5-7 Hiro, which are the comparable size with the Kawanoe whales.

Fi宮. ~. 1.cft scapula of' the Kawanoc whale.

OBSERVATION OF SCAPULAE AND OTHER BONES

Shindo (1970) reports a scapula, a tympanie bulla and one of ribs of the stranded

whale at Usuki also have been preserved in the eity. These are private posession

of persons living there. I had a short trip in April 1974 to Usuki and Kawanoc

in order to examine these bones. It may be of some interest to note here the story

of the stranded whale briefly. The village of Odomari, now included in Usuki

city, construetcd fishing harbor (Fig. 6) in 1868, but the cost has remained as a

big burden of debt. On 1 February 1870 a big whale eame into the harbor and

finally stranded. This whale was sold, after being dismembered by all hands of

the villagers, and the amount of money earned could eover all of the eost needed

for the construction of the harbor. The villagers construeted a memorial (Fig. 7)

and on 1 February of the following year they held a buddhistic ceremony for the

whale. Since then the ceremony is being held on 1 February every year, including

1974.

On arrival at Odomari, Usuki city, I knew that another seapula has also

been preserved at a family. They also said some of the baleen plates of the whale

were remained until about five years ago, when they w巴re自nallyburned, not know-

ing the value of such precious sample. In Table 3 measurements of th巴 scapulae

o「theUsuki and Kawanoe whales are shown, together with measurements of other

Sci. Rψ. IV/tales Res. Inst., ，＼’0. 26. 1974

GRAY v¥'HALE 9

authors. The scapula of the Kawanoe whale (Fig. 5) agrees in general with the

descriptions by Andrews (1914), being intermediate between the wide, low blade

of Balaenoptera and the high, narrower and more symmetrically fan-shaped scapula

of Eubalaena. The superior margin is quite evenly convex and the glenoid border is almost straight except for a short concavity where it rises from the glenoid fossa.

The acromion is wide, but it is not expanding towards its distal end, contrally to

the description of Andrews and the photograph shown by Nishiwaki and Kasuya

Fig. 6. Odomari fishing harbor, Usuki city. A big ¥>hale entered into this harbo1

an d日nally stranded in 1870.

(1970). But this is thought to be caused by abrasion of the extreme end. The coracoid is thick and massive and directed somewhat upward from the margin of

the glenoid fossa. The external face of the scapula is quite strongly concave. This scapula is smaller than that reported by Andrews (1914), but larger than

those reported by Nishiwaki and Kasuya (1970). Thc former whale is an old male of 1250 cm long, and the latter is a young female of 900 cm in length. This

scapula is thought to be taken from the second whale, and the size of this whale is possibly between the two lengths.

The scapulae of the Usuki whal巴（Fig.8) differ仕omthat of the Kawanoe

whale, being more broader and less massive, as shown in the table expressed by

thickness of th巴 superiormargin of the fan. The acromion and the coracoid arc shorter than in the Kawanoe whale. The external face is quite different from the

Kawanoe whale, having no concavity, a characteristic feat山℃ ofthe gray whale.

On the rear‘surface it has several shallow grooves radiating from the center of the

fan. Without doubt these scapulae camc仕omonc of the balaenopterid whales.

The tympanic bone, 129 mm in length, is broken at its margin, but this also sug-

gest this and the outline of this bone resembles to that or the blue whale from the North Pacific (Fig. 9). The remaining rib is thought to bc one of the latter half

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. inst.,

.No. 26, 1914

10 01¥llU R八

ribs. Its head is rounded and it measures 147 cm in straight line, but its distal end

was cut o-1干byknife. This bone has lesser value for the identification of the species.

After returning to Tokyo I sent three baleen plates, each one from the blue,

fin and Bryclc’s whales, to Usuki !Or their identification, not informing them the

species. They told me the color or the baleen plates was black, but the scapulae

Ivfemorial of the big whale at Odomar1.

are without doubt not from a right nor a humpback whale, and there is less pos-

sibility of the sei whale in these regions. The reply was that the whale was a blue

whale. Tomilin (1957) describes the ratio of breadth of the scapula against the

height is 1.5-1.6 in the blue, 1.65 in the fin, and 2.0 in the sei whale. This vah』E

of the Usuki whale is around 1.6 and very close to the value for both blue and

fin whales.

In conclusion above the Usuki whale was possibly a blue whale and this was

a rare case of the stranding of this species. The size of the scapulae are relatively

small. The body length of this whale was recorded as having 15 Hiro which means

roughly 75 feet (2250 cm.). This is clearly too big, even if this means the total

length. Possibly the size of this whale was smaller than 20 m and probably around

1 7 m. The sex of this whale was male, because there remains a record that both

Sci. Re/1. Whales Res. Inst.,

No. 26, 1971

GRAY ¥>¥IHALE II

eyes, penis, and bones in the loin (peh ic bones?) were burried beneath the memorial,

sealed in a pot.

TABL巳 3. MEASUREMENTS OF SじAl'UI.AE OF 'I・HE USU l、l八N() ＂八 IへJ八NOi・:WH八LES.

(111 mm

Usuki whale Ka、vanuじ、、・hale Gray A Measurements ，ーーーーー目ーー《ーーーーーーー－、 ~ーーーーーーー，、ーーーーーーーー、 Gray B

Right しcrt しcft Right Left

Greatest breadth 980 970 990 757 761 l 125

Greatest height 615 600 740 495 514 856

Length of acromion, inf'crio1 260 220 290 193 190 335

l:l1・cadthof acromion, distal end 121* 120場 139 132 145 180

Length of coracoid 40 55 100 58 62 146

しcngth of glcnoid fossa 235 220 210 253 245 268

Thickness of superior margin

at anterior end 29 29 27

at middle 9 8 15

at posterior end 42 44 52

Ratio of breadth against height 1.59 I.62 l .311 I .53 I ,48 I. 31

* Greatest.

Gray A. Cited from Nishiwaki and l《~asuya, l 970.

Gray B. Cited from Andrews, 1914.

Fi耳.8. Right scapula of the U川 kiwhale.

DISCUSSION

Although practically nothi時 wasdescribed by Andrews (1914), Miz山（1951)and Rice and Wolman (I 971 ), the gray wl叫 eoccured on the coast of Wakayama and

Kochi in the days of th巴 netwhaling as already stated. It is possible that they

Sci. Re/J. Whales Res. Inst.,

λro. 26, 1974

12 Ol¥lURA

entered into the Seto Inland Sea for calving, along the west coast of Shikoku.

Their calving grounds were at least in the Beppu-wan and on the south coast of

Yamaguchi. Possibly some of them then turned to east and reached as far as

Kawanoe and Takuma. There is less possibility that the whale entered into the

Seto Inland Sea along the west coast of Wakayama. One reason for this is the

Fig. 9. Tympanic bulla of the Usuki whale.

fact that no tomb or memorial is remaining on the west coast of Wakayama and

east coast of Shikoku. Fishermen who engaged in the net whaling believed that

whales come straight仕omo汀 Shionomisaki,the southmost point of Wakayama,

to the coast of Shikoku. Supposed migration route is shown in Fig. 10.

With the increasing of industrial development along the coast of the Seto

Inland Sea and boat and ship traffic the species has been driven仕om there since

some time prior to this century. This might be the most possible explanation why

practically no gray whale has been taken by modern whali時 onthe coast of Japan.

Mizue (I 951) reports, a氏erinvestigating available catch records of whaling com・

panies in seven years from 1911 to 1932, three were taken at Ayukawa and one at

Nemuro, Hokkaido. Nishiwaki and Kasuya (1970) describe two recent oeeurences

off Wakayama.

The feeding ground of the Japanese stock of the gray whale was probably in

the Okhotsk Sea as in the case of the Korean stock (Rice and Wolman, 1971).

The migration route to and fi‘om the feeding ground was possibly on the east coast

of Japan, as already stated by Nishiwaki and Kasuya (1970). After driven from

the calving ground in the Seto Inland Sea it probably has joined to the Korean

stock. Further a possibility of joining to the California stock in th巴 BeringSea

can not be denied. The original size of this stock is thought to be small and less

than a thousand at the largest.

At Omijima, a small island on the north coast of Yamaguchi, or in the Sea of

Japan, the gray whale was also taken in the days of the net whaling (Kimura,

1956). There remains catch records during a period from I 802 to 1850, by species.

Annual catch, inclusive of all species, was fluctuated 仕om one to日丘eenwhales.

Sci. Rψ. Whales Res. inst.,

/11匂.26~ 1974

GRAY WHALE 13

The total catch during this period was consisted of the fin (38 %), the humpback (34%), the right (19%), and the gray whale (9%). The catch of the gray whale has decreased since 1812. A question remains whether these gray whales belong to the Korean stock or they are stragglers from the Japanese stock.

!J 0

Fig. 10. Possible migration route of the gray whale on the coast of Japan. Hatched area: Supposed calving ground.

Black dots: Positions where whale tombs or memorials located. Names of the places refered to in the text are following. 1. Taiji 2. Ukitsu 3. Usuki 4. Beppu 5. Omijima 6. Onoda 7. Iwaijima 8. Kawanoe 9. Takuma

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Sincere thanks are due to Dr. N. Shindo who helped me greatly in this study. He joined my trip to Usuki and Kawanoe and made all possible arrangements for me. My thanks are also due to Mr. S. G. Brown of the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, England. He gave me the old Japanese book, he found at an old book store in London, and from which Table 2 in the text was refered.

REFERENCES

ANDREWS, R. C., 1914. Monographs of the Pacific cetacea. I. The California gray whale (Rhachianectes glaucus Cope). Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. (New Ser.), I: 227-287.

ANDREws, R. C., 1916. Monographs of the Pacific cetacea. II. The sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis Les­son). Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. (New Ser.). II: 291-388.

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., No. 26, 1974

14 OMURA

HATTORI, T., 1888. Nikon Hogei Iko (Monograph of the whaling in .Japan). Part II. Tokyo. 210 p. (In Japanese).

HAWLEY, F., 1958. Whales & Whaling in Japan. Vol. 1, Part 1. MiscellaneaJaponica, II. Kyoto. 354 p. HIGASHI, K., 1944. Z,oku Manyo Doubutsu-ko (Further studies of animals in the Manyo period). Kyoto.

(In Japanese). KANDORIYA, J., 1760. Geishi (The treatise of the whale). Kyoto. (In Japanese). KIMURA, S., 1956. Kujira no Kakocho (Buddhistic records of the dead whale). Geiken-tsushin. 63: 144-

150. (In Japanese). M1zuE, K., 1951. Gray whales in the east sea of Korea. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., 5: 71-79. NISHIWAKI, M. and T. KAsUYA, 1970. Recent record ofgray whale in the adjacent waters of Japan and a

consideration on its migration. Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst., 22: 29-37. 0TSUKI, K., 1925. Geishiko (A draft of a history of the whale). Sendai. 169 p. (In Japanese). RICE, W. D. and A. A. WOLMAN, 1971. The life history and ecology of the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus).

Amer. Soc. Mamm. Special Publication No. 3. 142 p. SHIBUSAWA, K., 1939. Tosa Muroto Ukitsugumi Hogei Shiryo (Records of the Ukitsu whaling group, Tosa

Muroto). Attic Museum Iho 36. Tokyo. 371 p. (In Japanese). SHINDO, N., 1968. Seto Naikai no Kujira no Kenkyu (Studies of whales in the Seto Inland Sea). Kobe. 135 p.

(In Japanese). SHINDO, N., 1970. Kujira-zuka no Kenkyu (Studies on whale tombs and memorials). Kobe. 161 p. (In

Japanese). ToMILIN, A. G., 1957. Cetacea. Mammals of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries. IX. English translation

in 1967. 717p. YAKUYOKI, 1864. An official records of the local government of Kowanoe (hand written).

POSTSCRIPT

After completion of the manuscript I read a paper on the Korean stock of the gray whale by Bowen (1974). The author states that the 1968 specimen (Nishiwaki and Kasuya, 1970) resembled members of the California stock in morphological features, without mentioning the character in question. As seen -in Table 3 the ratios of breadth against height of scapulae in three specimens of the gray whale are: the Kawanoe whale 1.34, Gray A (Nishiwaki and Kasuya, 1970) 1.48-1.53, and Gray B (Andrews, 1914, Korean stock) 1.31. Thus in this respect the Kawanoe whale resembles more to the member of the Korean stock than the whale reported from the coast of Japan. But the latter whale is a young female and this is thought to be a difference due to the growth.

As regards the distribution of the Korean stock Dr. K. Uchida (1964) describes a gray whale sighted by him towards the end of May 1930 on the west coast of Korea, in the Yellow Sea, at a position close to 38°N.

REFERENCES

BowEN, S. L., 1974. Probable extinction of the Korean stock of the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus). J. Mamm. 55 (I): 208-209.

UcamA, K., 1964. Chigyo wo motomete (My study on fish fry). lwanami-shinsho. Tokyo. 207 p.

Sci. Rep. Whales Res. Inst.,

No. 26, 1974